MILWAUKEE – These are the kinds of the games the Indiana Pacers want to play in a couple of months. This team has playoff expectations, and Friday night's knock'em down, drag'em out slugfest is exactly the kind of intense contest they can expect to encounter in the playoffs.

Which is why escaping from a raucous Bradley Center with a 103-96 win against a fellow Eastern Conference contender left a particularly sweet taste in the mouths of Victor Oladipo and his 35-27 Pacers.

"From the arena, to the refs, to the players, everybody, it definitely was a playoff atmosphere," said the all-star, who led Indiana with 21 points. "That was a big win for us. ... A gritty tough win and a nice bounceback game for us."

With both teams jostling for Eastern Conference playoff seeding and both desperate to snap their losing steaks, the game turned physical fast.

A bump here turned into a shove there, yet officials continued to rule: Let them play.

That they did, until the uncalled slaps and smacks started to irritate, agitate and finally frustrate. When Thad Young was hacked going up for a dunk and no whistle blew, he boiled over, screaming at the referee for a foul. Technical.

And they were off.

A few minutes later, Lance (Stephenson) started to Lance, and the Bucks took exception. Before you knew it, a double technical was called, and the roof almost came off the Bradley Center.

Fifteen seconds later, a technical on Eric Bledsoe. Twenty-five seconds after that, a technical on superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. The crowd was going mad, and what was already going to be an intense game had the makings of a bloodbath.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the players settled down -- a little.

"It was a grind out game right from the start," Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. "I thought our guys did a pretty good job of handling that pressure. But both teams were getting after it from the start. Both teams were playing for the same thing, and the officials were allowing the guys to play. We adjusted, refocused and stated to execute and get some stops.

"If you get into the playoffs, it's going to get physical, and you just have play through it. You can't allow officiating to be to be a distraction. This is where you have to execute and trust the things you've conditioned yourself to do."

The Pacers would eventually begin to resemble themselves, but only after a sloppy first half. They shot a horrid 33 percent from the field and turned the ball over seven times, yet only trailed by one entering the break thanks to some sturdy defense and a some shoddy Bucks shooting.

After misfiring jumpers the first two periods, Indiana came out of the intermission hellbent on attacking the rim. Their efforts paid off. Oladipo, who continued to struggle with his jumper, threw down two huge dunks and a pair of layups to score 11 of Indiana's 33 points in the quarter. The dominant period, which included a 14-1 run, allowed Indiana a double-digit lead heading into the fourth.

But, of course, there are no easy road wins in the NBA. Milwaukee clawed its way back to within five before Oladipo buried a three with just under four minutes to go to give Indiana a 88-96 lead.

The Bucks continued to fight, eventually getting as close as three with 10 seconds left, but could not complete the comeback. With the victory, the Pacers both avoided their first three-game losing streak since those post-Christmas games without Oladipo and gave themselves a chance to finish this four-game road trip with a 2-2 split. A win against the Washington Wizards on Sunday, and Indiana can consider the road trip salvaged.

Here are three takeaways from the Pacers' 103-96 victory over Milwaukee:

Indiana Pacers center Domantas Sabonis (11) reacts after guard Victor Oladipo (4) scored a basket late in the fourth quarter during the game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.(Photo: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports)

Defense keys victory

In their past two games against two of the worst teams (Dallas, Atlanta) in the NBA, the Pacers yielded 109 and 107 points. Unacceptable by McMilan's standards and unacceptable by the standards of a team that expects to compete for a top seed in the Eastern Conference.

Friday night's performance, however, was absolutely reminiscent of a playoff-caliber team, as Indiana held the Bucks to nine points below their season average of 105.

Indiana accomplished that by keeping Milwaukee out of the paint (32 points) and consistently getting a hand in the Bucks' faces forcing them to shoot a dreadful 38 percent from the field.

"We started to get stops in the third quarter," McMillan said. "We didn't do a good job of rebounding the ball in the first half, but the second half we did a better job, getting in there helping and limiting them to one shot."

Among the best performances of the night was delivered by point guard Cory Joseph, who helped limit sharpshooter Eric Bledsoe to 15 points. He entered the game averaging 17.4 over his past five contests, but connected on just 3-of-11 shots Friday.

Thaddeus Young's efforts against the uber-athletic Antetokounmpo must not go overlooked, either. The Greek Freak is eminently capable of taking over a game, and while Young and the Pacers didn't shut him down (24 points, 10 rebounds), they didn't let him run wild either.

"We made him go east and west instead of letting him go north and south," Young said. "That's a guy's a different breed. He'll keep coming at you with force, and he does a great job. I just tried to as often as I could to make him pick his dribble up and force him into a tough contested shot."

Oladipo's shooting woes continue

A turn of the calendar wasn't the relief Oladipo was hoping for. After a brutal February that saw him shoot a dismal 23 percent from the 3-point line, Oladipo's March debut didn't go much better. The all-star shot missed a majority of his jump shots, including going 2-of-6 from beyond the arc.

After knocking down his first shot of the game, Oladipo missed his next four in a row before what looked to be unintentionally banking in a bucket. He finished the first half with as many turnovers (two) as he did made shots.

To his credit, while he has been a shell of his best self from the perimeter lately, he hasn't let the other aspects of his game collapse around him. He still attacked the rim -- making a poster out of Tyler Zeller -- and finished with six assists, seven rebounds and two steals, chased down loose balls and played exceptional help-side defense against the bigger, longer Bucks.

Myles Turner's roller-coaster season rolls on

One game he's brilliant, the next he's all but absent. That's been the book on Turner during an up-and-down junior campaign. On Friday, the Pacers got the best of Myles Turner, who did many of the things the organization has been asking him to do -- and then some.

After opening the game by knocking down a jumper out of a pick-and-roll, Turner (13 points) began doing dirty work down low. The nine rebounds he finished with do not do justice to how often he was involved in corralling missed shots. An inexact tally had him tip out at least three rebounds that his teammates were credited with.

He also flashed the low-post moves fans and coaches alike have been dying to see. He finished off an and-1 opportunity after a beautiful pump fake that was followed swiftly with an up-and-under move to the hoop.

He finished with 13 points, the majority of which he scored in the first half, on 4-of-6 shooting from the field. If he starts stringing together performances like this instead of delivering them every other night, Indiana will be in good shape moving forward.